(Nam Phan vs. Mike Budnik. Props: eze32101)

No need for a lengthy preamble — you’ve already seen the first five minutes of the Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck season premiere, and you know how these things generally go down. We’ve got 28 lightweights, battling for 14 spots. Dana White addresses the troops, Bruce Leroy giggles with anticipation. It’s the elimination round, where the RFFs (real fucking fighters) are separated from the pretenders. Let’s get it.

Marc Stevens vs. TJ O’Brien 
Stevens wrestled at the University of Buffalo when Josh Koscheck was the assistant wrestling coach there. Kos calls him an "okay wrestler." Stevens immediately lands a huge overhand right, then jackhammers O’Brien on the ground until the ref steps in. We later learn that the 13-second TKO is the fastest stoppage in TUF history. "Remember me now?" Stevens asks Koscheck.

Spencer Paige vs. Steve Magdaleno
Paige’s striking is as good as advertised, as he lands a mix of attacks in round 1. Magdaleno ends the round on top, working some ground-and-pound, but it might not be enough to steal the round. They start round 2 swinging for the fences before Paige starts blasting Magdaleno with knees. Magdaleno shoots on Paige and dumps him. Magdaleno looks for an arm triangle, then goes back to abusing Paige from the top. Magdaleno drops to guard when the action goes standing again, and possibly blows the fight, as Paige finishes strong with strikes from the top. Paige takes the unanimous decision.

("Wouldn’t it have been easier to just accept my friend request?" PicProps: CP24.com)

UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre tells our guy Fowlkes at MMA Fighting this week that he typically doesn’t like to get to know his opponents on a personal level before he fights them. Since we all know that deep down GSP is kind of a bleeding-heart softy, he worries that if he comes to like and respect his foes it will be more difficult for him to beat the stuffing out of them in the cage.

“It’s hard," St. Pierre says. "Because let’s say in the fight you have a good position on him to hurt him, you know, to put him away and really hurt him. It’s harder to do. That’s why I like to be away from my opponent."

Apparently – and to absolutely no one’s surprise — getting to know Josh Koscheck while filming season 12 of “The Ultimate Fighter” had the exact opposite effect. In fact, St. Pierre says the most difficult thing about his TUF 12 experience was just having to hang out in close proximity to that insufferable dick. And here we thought the worst part of the reality show for GSP would be not being able to go to Club Orchid for a few weeks …

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– The UFC officially announces Penn vs. Hughes III in Detroit (MMA Convert)

– Efrain Escudero comes in four pounds heavy for UFC Fight Night 22; fight with Oliveira will proceed as a catchweight bout (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Must-see: Chael Sonnen debuts his new stand-up comedy material at yesterday’s UFC Q&A session in Austin. (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Helwani vs. Dundas: UFN 22 Edition (Versus MMA Beat)

– Donald Cerrone Steps Over the Line Between Good Hype and a PR Problem (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 119: Mir vs. Cro Cop extended video trailer (MMA Scraps)

– Punk rock vampire pirates are the key to MMA promotion, obviously. (MiddleEasy)

– Anderson Silva says the fight against Chael Sonnen would be a different story, if he was completely healthy (LowKick)

– Behind the Lens With Josh Koscheck (FIGHT! Magazine)

– Epic video of Muhammad Ali doing what he does best…talking that smack (Watch Kalib Run)

You may also be interested in…

– The Jackass 3D crew needs ideas. Submit yours for a chance to film it with them. Plus, video of a rather impressive ferris wheel nut-shot. (WonderHowTo)

– Music video directors who made the jump to the big screen (Bullz-Eye)

The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck could turn out to be very entertaining, but in general, we’re not expecting any surprises. The coaches already have their roles sorted out, and won’t be straying from them: Georges St. Pierre is the nice-guy champion who doesn’t let his opponents get under his skin, and Josh Koscheck is the trash-talking contender who gave up on being liked a long time ago. At this point, there’s no reason to think St. Pierre won’t dominate Koscheck in December like he did during their first meeting in 2007. But maybe Kos can take a page out of the Chael Sonnen playbook and force you to care about the rematch through the sheer power of his assholishness.

So anyway, here’s the first five minutes of next week’s TUF 12 premiere, courtesy of Spike. Koscheck vows to whip GSP’s fake ass. Dana White is so excited that he’s sweated through his Bruce Lee t-shirt. (Too early for gray, buddy.) It’ll be another "wild card" season — the setup that allowed finalist Kris McCray to fight five times in six weeks last season. Dana pumps up the cast with his usual arsenal of F-bombs. We meet the first two preliminary round fighters. And that’s pretty much it. No word on if any doors are destroyed this season, or if any raw fish is beaten off into. Okay, fine, maybe there will be a few surprises…

(Video courtesy TheMMAFix)

It looks like Dana White wasn’t thrilled with Jon Fitch’s less than enthralling performance in his win over Thiago Alves at UFC 118 last month, since the UFC president has now rescinded an earlier assertion that the winner of the bout would be next in line for a title shot at the winner of December’s Georges St-Pierre-Josh Koscheck showdown.

During an appearance on Comcast Sportsnet Washington’s The MMA Fix, White said the welterweight title picture is a bit murkier than it seemed a few weeks ago, which may be partially a result of Fitch’s conservative stall and brawl tactics he employed to decision Alves.

"I want to wait for Koscheck and St-Perre to happen and we’ll figure out who gets the next shot," White explained noncommittally.  "By then Jake Shields will have fought…Kampmann…you know…we’ll see what happens. A lot of it is timing too."

Punch Machine Music Video Sneak Peek – Watch more Funny Videos

- Koscheck responds to Yves Lavigne’s comments (watchkalibrun)

*editor’s note: Lavigne has denied ever speaking with Le Journal de Montreal, the newspaper that printed his alleged comments. Chael Sonnen wants royalties from Yves for copping his MO.

- The dangers of eating a hotdog while on acid (doubleviking)

- Bellator 28 card released (mmajunkie)

- Grandpa jumps a loudmouth at the U.S. Open (scoresreport)

- Marcus Davis is releasing an autobiography…no, seriously (fightersonly)

- Sexy sideline reporters (chickipedia)

- The truth about choosing your fights (mmafighting)

- Entourage actress Dania Ramirez (screenjunkies)

- Five ways the UFC could utilize a tournament format (bleacherreport)

- Stephen Hawking isn’t as smart as we thought (holytaco)

- No Olympics, no problem – UFC plans to create its own international tournament (yahoo!sports)

- 10 incredibly misleading movie trailers (mademan)

(Rogan was right. That DOES look like a goat’s vagina.)

It looks like Mike Pierce won’t be getting the bone he wanted the UFC to throw him for earning his third Octagon appearance last weekend at UFC 118 against Amilcar Alves.

Yesterday Pierce called out Thiago Alves via Twitter and "The Pitbull" accepted the Washington native’s challenge, however the UFC had other plans for the American Top Team fighter who will now face John Howard at UFC 124 in Montreal on December 11.

The news was first reported by MMAJunkie this afternoon and we were able to confirm with a source close to Alves.

The fight may well be Alves’ last stab at remaining at welterweight after he failed to make weight for the second time in his UFC career, this time for an important number two contendership match-up with Jon Fitch at UFC 117 last month that would determine who was next in line for a shot at the winner of the Georges St-Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck bout, which is also slated for the December 11 card.

(I’m not impressed by your eyes-closed technique.)

Josh Koscheck will definitely not have the advantage of a bipartisan crowd on his side when he squares off against Georges St-Pierre two weeks before Christmas in the UFC welterweight champion’s hometown of Montreal, Quebec at UFC 124 on December 11. 

The news was first reported today by MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, who confirmed the venue and the match-up (which will be the culmination of the pair’s season as opposite coaches on The Ultimate Fighter 12) with UFC president Dana White.

The Ultimate Fighter 12 Exclusive Promo – Watch more Sports Videos

Now that we’ve met TUF 12‘s lightweight contestants, it’s time to start building some hype for the rival coaches. SPIKE has provided CagePotato.com with this exclusive promo for The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck, in which St. Pierre and Kos face off during a pretty nasty-looking storm. Personally, we’d be huddled in a basement somewhere, but you know how these fighters are — you can’t tell them anything. TUF 12 premieres Wednesday, September 15th, at 10pm/9c, directly following UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares.

(Nine out of 10 British Columbian doctors were astonished to learn Dan Hardy is actually alive and well. PicProps: Examiner.com)

Just a few days after a bunch of those crazy, socialist Canadian doctors – probably the same lot who tried to kill Brock Lesnar – called for a nationwide ban on MMA, the Ontario government announced on Saturday it will sanction the sport beginning in 2011. Take that, quacks! (OK fine, the two stories are probably unrelated, but still …)

Ontario and its capital city of Toronto opening their doors to MMA is being regarded as kind of a big deal and the news touched off some fairly hilarious quotes among the local politicians north of the border. The Canadian Press is also asserting that the UFC might hold off on Georges St. Pierre’s rematch with Josh Koscheck until the new year so it can stage that “blockbuster bout” at the Air Canada Centre or Rogers Centre. Oh Canada, so adorable with your funny spellings, earnest political discourse and relentless optimism.

( UFC contract: $Millions,  30-day suspension: $0, Becoming a bigger heel than Josh Koscheck for sucker punching him after the bell: PRICELESS)

Paul Daley is lucky he didn’t sucker punch Josh Koscheck in Nashville.

Otherwise, he likely would have received a much heftier punishment for the May 8 infraction than the 30-day suspension the Quebec athletic commission — the Régie des Alcools des Courses et des Jeux (Regulators of Alcohol, Racing and Gaming) — sentenced him to in his absence at a hearing in the French-Canadian province today.

Sherdog’s Loretta Hunt is reporting that the suspension may not even affect the British welterweight who fought on the July 18 Impact Fighting Championships card where he submitted Daniel Acacio and who is slated to take on Jorge Masvidal at Shark Fights 13 on Sept. 11 — two days AFTER his suspension ends if it begins immediately.

(Suddenly, Thiago felt overcome by déjà vu. He knew he had been here before. Where had it been? In a dream? In another life? Wait, give him a minute, it’ll come to him. PicProps: Tracy Lee/Yahoo Sports)

Jon Fitch emerged victorious over Thiago Alves last night at UFC 117 in a fight that – minus the funky up-kick stoppage – looked pretty much just like the pair’s first meeting from 2006. The decision win allegedly puts Fitch in line for a future 170-pound title shot; one everyone assumes will be a do-over of his 2008 loss to Georges St. Pierre. Of course, that’s assuming GSP hangs onto the belt in his scheduled December fight against Josh Koscheck … which will be a rematch of their first fight back in 2007.

What we’re trying to say here is, provided Koscheck doesn’t throw a giant wrench in things at the end-of-the-year show, don’t expect to see any new shit from the UFC welterweight division for the next, oh, six to eight months.

(Pittsburgh?!? Those country rubes wouldn’t even know what to *do* with big-city action like this. PicProps: The new UFC.com)

It appears that neither Josh Koscheck nor Georges St. Pierre will get his wish regarding the locale for the pair’s Dec. 11 welterweight title fight. Both guys had previously expressed desires to hold the bout – which we assume will become a “heated grudge match” just as soon as Koscheck gets down to business being really annoying on “TUF 12” – close to home. GSP wanted Montreal. Koscheck wanted Pittsburgh. After the UFC recently opened an office in Toronto, it seemed the company might try to use this fight as its entre into the Forbidden City.

But with MMA still locked out of Ontario (tolerant, forward-thinking Ontario) UFC President  Dana White told the Sun newspaper this week that Pittsburgh just didn’t feel quite big-time enough for a championship fight of this magnitude. Next stop, everyone’s favorite home-away-from-home: Las Vegas.

(Either of of these guys could potentially win the opportunity Saturday night to have GSP rearrange their faces again in the New Year.)

Apparently Dana White Sides with me on my opinion that Jake Shields should have to win at least two fights in the UFC before earning a title shot.

The UFC president announced today during the pre-fight press conference for UFC 117 that the winner of Saturday night’s welterweight showdown between Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves will garner a title shot early next year.

(Josh, you ‘air look ridiculous. I can see da roots. And it is so dry and brittle. Let me give you the name of my ‘airdresser in Montreal.)

According to Josh Koscheck, Christmas will come two weeks early for him this year and his present will be a fight with UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre on December 11.

"Can’t wait until tuf 12 airs in Sept! & oh ya did u guys know, that I am going to be the next welterweight champion come dec 11th," Koscheck tweeted today.

(Todd S.)

(Adam F.)

Thanks to everybody who submitted entries for our first-ever Facebook photoshop contest! Y’all gave us some legit LOL’s, for real. And if we could give CagePotato t-shirts to all of you, we totally would, but instead we’re just going to choose our eleven favorites, which continue after the jump. If your work has been posted, hit up contest@cagepotato.com with your shirt size and address, and we’ll get you sorted. We hope your summers are going this well…

(“Of course I wore me sunglasses to the press conference. I didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of all these people, now did I?”)

As part of an on-going effort to be all things to all people, the omnipresent BJPenn.com published a report this week citing “undisclosed sources” saying British firebrand/sucker-puncher Paul Daley had inked a deal with Bellator Fighting Championships. In response to this report, please allow CagePotato.com to extend its sweaty, frail hand in friendship to BJPenn.com and say: Welcome to the wild world of journalism, pal, where the pay is terrible, the food is worse, nearly everybody hates your guts and the entire world sits poised over its keyboards, waiting for the slightest provocation to tell you you’re totally full of shit, even when you’re not.

Case in point: Bellator says it hasn’t signed Daley. At least not yet. Contract negotiations are apparently top secret over at the BFC – almost as secret as where to actually find the company’s programming on your TV dial – so an unnamed source (assumedly different from Penn’s “undisclosed” one) was only willing to issue the briefest of contradictory statements to MMAFighting.com on Saturday.

(Video courtesy Sportsnet)

Sportsnet’s "Showdown" Joe Ferraro sat down with Jon Fitch this past weekend in Vancouver and, among other topics, spoke with the American Kickboxing Academy fighter about the UFC’s welterweight landscape and his teammate, Josh Koscheck’s year-end showdown with 170-pound champion. Georges St-Pierre.

Not surprisingly, Fitch is picking Kos to beat GSP, and says that if it happens and Josh successfully defends his belt,  he’ll move up to middleweight indefinitely.

"The first fight, Koscheck lost the fight to a takedown. He won the first round, lost the second round and in the third he shoots a single, switches of to a double and Georges is able to defend it and sprawl and Josh has to pull guard," Fitch said. "That was the deciding factor in that fight, so it will be interesting to see where this fight goes now. I don’t know if will be as much of a wrestling match as it was the first time. There might be a lot more striking involved. It’s a tough fight and its an interesting fight, but I think Koscheck’s gonna win it."

(Ken Shamrock on steroids? Stop the presses!)

The revelation of a UFC Hall of Famer’s past steroid use promised by HDNet’s “Inside MMA” became pretty anticlimactic on Friday when the fighter in question turned out to be Ken Shamrock. While Shamrock’s taped interview during a segment of the show called “Fighting Words with Mike Straka” marked his first public admission of cheating, the MMA pioneer has long been rumored to dabble in the juice and tested positive for banned substances following his most recent victory –  a submission win over the now-deceased Ross Clifton in Feb. of 2009  — so the news came as a surprise to exactly no one.

More interesting than the actual confession were Shamrock’s contentions that steroids are so easy to get it’s “like going to the grocery store,” and that fans should shoulder at least some of the responsibility for athletes turning to performance enhancers.

(I do this because I love you, Josh.)

At yesterday’s pre-UFC 115 press conference, UFC president Dana White pulled no punches while expressing his opinion of Josh Koscheck’s recent suggestion that Olympic-style drug testing should be used in the weeks leading up to his end of year showdown with Georges St-Pierre.

"I think that’s what an athletic commission is for. The athletic commissions have been around for a long time. When fighters start talking about other guys being drug tested? Shut up. Worry about you. It’s been a long time since somebody [on our roster] tested positive for steroids. When we first took over, guys were popping here and there and I said, ‘You have to be a moron to do steroids in this sport.’ It’s just dumb."

(Kos and Georges enjoy their first staredown on the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ set. Props: twitter.com/ufc)

Now that TUF 12 has started taping, it’s time for Josh Koscheck to start building heat for his December fight against Georges St-Pierre — and he’s following the Floyd Mayweather playbook to the letter. In a story posted last night on MMA Junkie, Koscheck breathed new life into the steroid accusations first brought up by BJ Penn:

"From what I’ve heard from other fighters in other camps, yeah, [St-Pierre] has done steroids and HGH, possibly. I don’t know. This is just on hearsay information that I’ve gotten…B.J. Penn and his camp gave me a little phone call. They were saying, ‘Yeah, he’s on steroids. He’s this; he’s that.’ I said, ‘Yeah, there’s a possibility.’ The guy is pretty ripped all year round…I think Olympic-style testing would be great for our sport. At least you do it a couple times out from the fight. I think it will be a great idea."

Olympic-style drug testing involves taking blood, which is more effective than the standard urine tests used by athletic commissions because it allows for the identification of a greater range of P.E.D.’s, including human growth hormone. But Koscheck’s first attempt at getting one over on St-Pierre was unfruitful, as the champ shook off the accusations without getting too upset, and said he’s down with any testing they throw at him:

Part 1
(Video courtesy YouTube/WrestlingObserver)

During a media scrum prior to the UFC 114 press conference, UFC president Dana White revealed that,  contingent on sanctioning happening in Ontario, he is hoping to hold a December event in Toronto, which will feature a championship match-up between welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and his rival coach from The Ultimate Fighter 12, Josh Koscheck.

Considering affirmations by both White and new director of Canadian operations, Tom Wright were made at last week’s press conference that the promotion will likely hold its first event at Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome), the event could potentially draw as many as 70,000 attendees, which is around the number Wrestlemania 18 did at the venue in 2002.

Hopefully the calibre of card is relative to the amount of live gate the show will garner. If it is, we could be treated to an event that eclipses the epic PRIDE NYE shows we were spoiled by in the past.

Part 2 of the video after the jump

(Georges St. Pierre schools Montreal Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque in a friendly grappling match last week; action starts around 4:03. Props: danieltricolore)

Sorry for the delay on this, link dump fanatics; we were experiencing some technical difficulties on Friday afternoon. Anyway, here’s some interesting stuff to go with your morning coffee…
 
- The scariest fan at Moosin: God of Martial Arts. (MiddleEasy)

- Exactly What is Strikeforce Hoping to Accomplish with Challengers Events? (MMA Fighting)

– DREAM light-heavyweight grand prix slated for July 10th show; Aoki vs. Kawajiri also possible. (Sherdog)

– UFC’s third Fan Expo to coincide with UFC 118 in Boston. (MMA Junkie)

– Josh Koscheck goes out partying, tries on a cop’s helmet. (TMZ)

- The LaRosa fable unravels at Moosin. (CageWriter)

– Enson Inoue discusses his love of gangster MMA. (Fight Opinion)

– Who wouldn’t want to watch a cartoon series about two guys playing video games and insulting each other? (Fightlinker)

- Mike Russow – Aiming to Derail the Duffee Train (UFC)

– The 10 Best Trash-Talkers in MMA. (Bleacher Report)

(Props: kevinjd)

So let’s run this thing down, from the beginning.

During the first round of Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley‘s fight last Saturday at UFC 113, Paul Daley fires a knee to Josh Koscheck’s dome while Kos’s knees were clearly in the "down" position. Kos does his best to call attention to the foul before slumping over on the mat. He covers his face in apparent pain. When he removes his glove, there’s blood on the bridge of his nose that didn’t seem to be there before. The crowd boos Daley’s dirtiness…until they see the replay, which shows (from multiple angles) that at worst, Daley’s knee grazed Koscheck’s hair. Sure, the knee shouldn’t have been thrown in the first place, but Josh had just been exposed as a faker. Now the crowd was booing him. After the controversial fouls in his ugly match against Anthony Johnson, Koscheck’s credibility was officially shot.

Following the Daley fight, he stood by his claim that he’d been kneed illegally — or at least hit in the face by something. It could have been a fist, actually. At the time, this seemed like a pathetic explanation, because if it was a punch, why would Kos try so hard to draw the foul, and besides, hadn’t we just seen the replay of this mysterious illegal blow like 20 times? Forget it. Josh Koscheck was a liar and our minds were made up.

Okay. Are you ready to have your minds blown?

Props: The "PAUL DALEY ROMOSHOP CHALLENGE" thread on the UG, and inspired by this classic. Two more good ones are after the jump.

By the way, Paul Daley has already landed on his feet following his recent firing by the UFC. According to a new report on MMA Weekly, the British sucker-punch artist is fighting on a pay-per-view show in Australia in July — this one, maybe? — and is currently in talks with DREAM, Sengoku, and MFC. Well good for you, Paul. You can’t buy that kind of publicity.

(Photo courtesy Esther Lin/Fanhouse)

Recently unemployed fighter Paul "Semtex" Daley released the following statement Sunday evening through the UK-based Telegraph newspaper, apologizing for his post-fight attack of opponent Josh Koscheck at Saturday night’s UFC 113 event in Montreal, Quebec:

(Props: MMAFighting)

Even in victory, Josh Koscheck managed to officially become one of the greatest MMA heels of all time on Saturday night, first with his apparent acting job following Paul Daley‘s illegal knee attempt, and then with his kiss-off to the Montreal crowd, vowing that the Penguins would defeat the Canadiens in the NHL Eastern Conference semi-finals, and that he would whoop their beloved GSP when they meet later this year.

In this post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani, Koscheck explains that his emotions got the better of him, and he’s sorry for his behavior during and after the fight. Just kidding! Instead, Kos makes a number of bold statements, few of which will endear him to the fans:

(Video of the Daley/Koscheck cheap shot, courtesy of LynchTheGrynch; sorry about those first eight seconds, guys.)

In case you missed the press conference, the big news coming out of UFC 113‘s post-event aftermath is that Paul Daley and Kimbo Slice have been released from the UFC. Daley suffered his first loss in the Octagon after being smothered by Josh Koscheck for three rounds in their co-headlining bout last night, then followed it up by slugging Kos after the bell (see above). As Dana White explained to reporters, the poor decision earned Daley a permanent ban from the UFC:

As for Kimbo, his lopsided loss to rookie TUF 10 vet Matt Mitrione was enough to seal his fate. But unlike Daley, White has nothing but respect for the former YouTube brawler:

(We’re assuming he couldn’t find a big enough cross to do Kimo Leopoldo. Top pic courtesy of seandiesel.)

The rumors are true, folks. Not only will the winner of tomorrow night’s welterweight co-headliner between Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley earn a shot at Georges St. Pierre’s belt, but that fighter will also get to do a tour of duty opposite GSP on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. Dana White confirmed the news today before the UFC 113 weigh-ins at the Bell Centre in Montreal. TUF 12 will begin filming in a few weeks, and is slated to premiere on September 15th. 

As for the results of today’s weigh-ins, the numbers are after the jump. No real surprises, although the weight differences in both heavyweight bouts were close to 30 pounds. Plus, Tom Lawlor showed up to the weigh-ins as Dan Severn, following previous weigh-in tributes to Just Bleed Guy and Harold Howard.

(Kos Ross is not impressed by your picture.)

Fan-made Photoshop contest to pick a new hairdo for Josh Koscheck: FREE

Kinko’s glossy color copy of winning entry (pictured below): $1

Look on Koscheck’s face when he is presented with the photo: PRICELESS